07/15/06 Tristram Shandy:A Cock And Bull Story

Tristram Shandy:A Cock And Bull Story (2005), directed by Michael Winterbottom

watched w/ Leslie (partially); DVD rental (Netflix) @ car ride (Greensboro, NC to Hickory, NC); suggested by Brad B.

In what is regarded as a novel that was virtually unfilmable (which looks a lot like inflammable on paper), Winterbottom here tries to do the unthinkable. Granted, I was not privy to knowing that this was even a novel...apparently it is somewhat of a cult classic dating back to the 1760's, and re-defining what exactly a novel could be with its free-form stylings. The novel I speak of, if you could not infer from the movie title, is "The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" by preacher and author Laurence Sterne. What comes to life in the book, is what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish in ridiculous hilarity in the movie. What that is, is the story of Tristram told through the eyes and actions of his own father Walter (both played by Steve Coogan, who also plays himself) and his many ruminations on life, civility, science, comedy, love, war, and the like. What is brilliant about this movie (as I'm sure is the case with the novel) is the constant ebb & flow of characters within their jumbled contexts...meaning that they move about as if they are one character portraying another historical figure, all the while being precisely the actor/actress who they are in our own modern reality in the filmmaking process. What remains is a wild send-up of what inclusive societies manifest in the filmmaking world of large groups of people living and working together, always teetering on the brink of reality and ficiton. As is evident with Sterne's writings on society and social figures, where he chooses to insert moments of character sketches, blank pages, and various digressions with his own flair for imposing the creator's thoughts. In the film, Coogan is accompanied by an ensemble cast of mayhem including Rob Brydon, Kelly Macdonald, Gillian Anderson, Jeremy Northam, Naomie Harris, Shirley Henderson (creepy Moaning Myrtle), and I believe at one point Winterbottom himself. The film tries itself to break all boundaries, as you get lost within the many sub-stories abound...which lead you to lengths of absurdity like Shandy (err, Coogan) being dropped upside down from a mechanical harness while in period garb (another time naked) into a gigantic fake womb, simulating the act (both scientifically and symbolically) of birth through the canal and into your living rooms. That scene alone was probably one of my favorites, and abstract reasoning enough to earn this film 4 stars. While the experimental novel was at first controversial for its obscenity of satire, it is that fact that keeps the modern-day cinematic version afloat. Beneath the chaos there seems to be some structure, and it forever changed the way people though of stories...which is an influence never forgotten by most experimental films today. A whimsical period parody, and that's no bull.

4 out of 5 stars